1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to project management of computer software development. More specifically, the present invention relates to an efficient procedure for managing quality assurance in a rapid manner required for web-based development applications.
2. Background of the Invention
Traditional software development attempts to provide software that meets customers' requirements. These requirements are often general in nature and are generated from information gathered by groups of project managers or project architects from groups of customers, often through third persons. A problem with such general requirements is that they do not accurately reflect each individual customer's needs. As a result, when a software application meeting the general requirements is delivered and installed, it often does not fully satisfy a particular customer's requirements.
As a result, customers often request changes to the software application, reject the software application delivery or take some other adverse action. In response to the customer's comments and actions, the software development and installation process must be repeated to meet new requirements. This iterative nature of traditional software development makes conventional software development time-consuming and costly.
In web-based software development efforts, the foregoing problems associated with delivery of software applications that do not adhere to customer requirements are or do not meet customer expectations magnified. This is because there are usually many more customers of the software, they are likely to be more diverse and to have had less input into the initial design of the software. Consequently, the initial requirements gathering is even less accurate than with traditional software development. Thus, designers and developers are often inundated with numerous change requests for modification to the software to meet specific customer requirements.
These changes require testing to assure that they are correctly implemented in delivered software. Testing results are conventionally analyzed by quality assurance personnel. However, inefficiencies in conventional quality assurance processes increase overall project costs and negatively impact time to market. Consequently, a streamlined quality assurance process that will enhance software reliability, while decreasing cost and schedule is required.